Australian uranium industry’s new propaganda – rubbishing fear of radiation
Industry leaders claim uranium mining held back by fear, Mining Australia 6 June, 2013 Vicky Validakis Addressing the fear of the uranium industry was the central theme of a uranium conference held in Adelaide last month, with industry leaders speaking out against campaigns that they say have choked the development of industry…… AUA chief executive Michael Angwin said the local industry has been politically choked by fear…… we should use that impetus to also reform the overweight regulation of and the approvals process for new uranium mines in Australia.”…..
“In short, we have entered the political end-game for uranium and any remnant political fears about the industry cannot be justified against the sector’s 40 year track record.”….
Greens nuclear policy spokesman Scott Ludlam said selling uranium to India would be ‘mistake’.
“I’m extremely concerned that Australian uranium will find itself one way or another fuelling a sub-continental arms race,” he said at the time……..http://www.miningaustralia.com.au/features/industry-leaders-claim-uranium-mining-held-back-by
Goodbye San Onofre nuclear plant: hello renewable energy
Sad Saga of San Onofre Nuclear Is Good News for Renewables “The demise of the San Onofre nuclear facility HERMAN K. TRABISH: JUNE 10, 2013 The eighteen-month struggle of the just-shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station (SONGS) has been chronicled in detail by GTM…………. The final straw was last month’s call by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) for a Justice Department investigation after letters were discovered showing that SCE purposely misrepresented the renovations to regulators as “like-for-like” (though it knew they weren’t) in order to avoid the costly license review…………. Center for Energy Efficiency and Renewable Technologies Executive Director V. John White observed that “the prudent economic thing is to recognize the plant is out of the money and it is time to move on.”……….. “Thanks to consumer conservation, energy efficiency programs and a moderate summer, the region was able to get through last summer,” SCE President Ronald Litzinger said, but any 2013 “generation outages, soaring temperatures or wildfires impacting transmission lines would test the system.”
San Onofre staff is expected to be cut from 1,500 to 400 employees by the end of this year. SCE intends to pursue recovery of damages from MHI and NEIL.
The CPUC promised to protect ratepayers by quickly determining financial responsibility and by leading the effort for “energy efficiency and demand response programs, as well as transmission upgrades and enhancements and some new generation resources.”
“This opens up the market to renewables to fill the gap,” former utility official Freeman said. http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/Sad-Saga-of-San-Onofre-Nuclear-is-Good-News-for-Renewables?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+GreentechMedia+%28Greentech+Media%29
Japan’s nuclear exports, and nuclear restart will mean loss of workers from Fukushima clean-up
Stricken nuke plant struggles on, Yahoo 7 Finance, AAP Jun 10, 2013“…….One Fukushima Dai-ichi worker, who has gained a big following on Twitter because of his updates about the state of the plant since the meltdowns, said veteran workers are quitting or forced to cut back on working in highly radiated areas of the plant as their cumulative exposure rises…………. Known as Happy-san to his 71,500 Twitter followers, he has worked in the nuclear industry for 20 years, about half of that at Fukushima.
He has worked at bigger contractors before, but is now at a mid-level contractor with about 20 employees, and has an executive level position.
“If things continue the way they are going, I fear decommissioning in 40 years is impossible. If nuclear plants are built abroad, then Japanese engineers and workers will go abroad. If plants in Japan are restarted, engineers and workers will go to those plants,” he said in a tweet………..
Other jobs are already so plentiful that securing enough workers for even the more lucrative work decontaminating the towns around the plant is impossible, according to Fukushima Labour Bureau data.
During the first quarter of this year, only 321 jobs got filled from 2,124 openings in decontamination, which involves scraping soil, gathering foliage and scrubbing walls to bring down radiation levels……….
“We’re headed toward a real crisis,” said Ryuichi Kino, a freelance writer and photographer who has authored books about the nuclear disaster and has reported on TEPCO intensively since March 2011.
Under the worst scenario, experienced workers capable of supervising the work will be gone as they reach their radiation-exposure limits, said Kino.
He believes an independent company separate from TEPCO needs to be set up to deal with the decommissioning, to make sure safety is not being compromised and taxpayer money is spent wisely. http://au.finance.yahoo.com/news/stricken-nuke-plant-struggles-000105277.html
1 This month
of the week – Disrupting War & Militarism in Oceania. Active solidarity. Radical practice.
Antinuclear 